CHELSEA MANNING, THE TRANSGENDER ARMY INTELLIGENCE ANALYST BEHIND WIKILEAKS, RELEASED FROM JAIL :

Chelsea Manning, the transgender army intelligence analyst behind one of the largest classified information leaks in US history, was on Wednesday released from military prison, a US Army spokeswoman said. Manning has been released from the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said in a brief statement. In July 2010, Manning — then a male soldier known as Bradley — was arrested over the release of a huge trove of more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic documents via WikiLeaks. Manning, now 29, was serving a 35-year sentence for the leak but president Barack Obama commuted her sentence before leaving office and she was released after seven years in prison. Amnesty International, which had campaigned for Manning’s release, was quick to applaud the decision. “While we celebrate her freedom, we will continue to call for an independent investigation into the potential human rights violations she exposed, and for protections to be put in place to ensure whistleblowers like Chelsea are never again subjected to such appalling treatment,” a statement said. The Rediff.com : 17th. May,17